Logic List Mailing Archive

Postdoctoral position in philosophical logic, Helsinki (Finland), Deadline: 15 Jan 2018

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce the opening of a Post-Doc position for one year, 
renewable for a second year, within the Academy of Finland project 
"Modalities and conditionals: systematic and historical studies" directed 
by Sara Negri at the Philosophy Unit of the University of Helsinki.

The main focus of the project is on philosophical logic. The ideal 
candidate is expected to have a strong background in modal logic, 
epistemic logic and proof theory, research experience with labelled 
deductive systems, and a strong motivation for collaborative work with the 
PI on the project's specific themes.

Qualification requirements:

Applications are invited by highly motivated and competent candidates with 
a doctoral degree in philosophy, mathematics, or computer science with 
focus on logic, with research experience and expertise relevant to the 
project.

Applicants should be able to demonstrate their ability to produce 
high-quality research, as evidenced by their doctoral thesis and 
publications, conference presentations, and references. The position does 
not require knowledge of Finland's national languages, as the research on 
the project will be conducted and published in English.

Terms of employment:

The position involves full-time employment for one year, renewable for a 
second year.  The start date is negotiable but should be not later than 
September 1st, 2018.

The postdoctoral fellow will be expected to produce high-quality research 
on the project, individually and in close collaboration with the principal 
investigator. The fellow will be expected to publish the results of 
his/her research in first-class international journals and conferences and 
to disseminate them via international conferences, workshops, seminars and 
other suitable events.  The fellow will also assist with some 
administrative work related to the project, such as organising related 
conferences, workshops, and seminars. A 5% teaching duty is involved in 
the fellowship.


Salary will be based on the Finnish salary scale for Academic employment 
and decided on the basis of the researcher's experience.


Application requirements: Candidates should send their cv, list of 
publications, a copy of their doctoral dissertation, a cover letter with a 
statement indicating their background, motivations, suitability for the 
project as a single message

with attachments as pdf (however, large files such as the doctoral 
dissertation and accessible through web repositories can be just linked) 
and subject "Post-doc application"; a letter of recommendation by the PhD 
thesis supervisor should be sent directly to Prof. Sara Negri.


Deadline for application: 15 January 2018.


Further information about the position can be obtained from Professor Sara 
Negri (sara.negri@helsinki.fi)




Brief project description: The proposed research belongs to philosophical 
logic, a core area of theoretical philosophy. The main objectives of the 
proposal are the application and further development of a novel logical 
methodology for the study of the inferential aspect of modalities and 
conditionals and the study of the sources of related modal concepts in 
European philosophy.


Philosophical logic has been traditionally devoted to the study of 
conceptual pairs such as necessity and possibility, and obligation and 
permission. Its privileged approach has been, since the introduction of 
possible worlds semantics, the semantical one, with analytic systems of 
proof considered an impossibility even for basic modal logics. The role of 
logic has been restricted to giving classes of axiomatizations for the 
basic notions at hand. The axiomatic approach, however, fails to represent 
inferential processes that require hypothetical reasoning.  Further, the 
classical systems of logic are inadequate as representations of modalities 
and conditionals that are outside the idealized realm of mathematical 
entities. They escape the standard truth value semantics and even possible 
worlds semantics fails in providing a sufficiently comprehensive setting.


The more general neighbourhood semantics will be used for a sharpening of 
the methods at the formal core of the project, with a parallel development 
of the normative, descriptive and deductive aspects of a logical system, 
and the addition, through decision methods, of a predictive component. 
Specific objectives include the proof-theoretical investigation of 
non-normal quantified modal logics, of conditionals both in pure form and 
in association with alethic, dynamic, and doxastic modalities.  The 
inferential systems obtained are applied in research areas that belong to 
pure and applied logic and formal epistemology.


Keywords: Philosophical logic, possible worlds semantics, neighbourhood 
semantics, modalities, first-order modal logic, conditionals, dynamic 
epistemic logic, sequent calculus, inferentialism, history of structural 
proof theory, history of modern modal logic.



Professor Sara Negri


http://www.helsinki.fi/~negri/

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